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What exactly is acharya kainkaryam?

The other day, adiyen was discussing a beautiful story from Ramanujacharya's life history with a few kids in a class. The story was about how Sri Vaduga Nambi lay himself on the hot scorching sand of the river Caveri shore. Vaduga nambi then put Ramanuja's tirumeni on himself so that Ramanuja can be safe as he prostrated in front his own acharya, Tirukoshtiyur nambi.

A few days earlier, Tirukoshtiyur nambi hurried to Sri Rangam on the concerns that Ramanujacharya went on a non-stop fasting as there were multiple attempts on his life. The goal of Tirukoshtiyur nambi's visit was to identify a truly trusted and a devoted disciple of Ramanujacharya who can make the prasadam. Luckily, he found one true disciple in Vaduga Nambi, who demonstrated that he did not care for his own discomfort and laid himself online to protect his acharya Ramanuja. As a result, Tirukoshtiyur nambi impressed with Vaduga nambi's devotion to Ramanuja and appointed him to perform all prasadam kainkaryams.

This event from Ramanuja's life history kept me thinking what exactly is acharya kainkaryam? Is it taking care of my acharya's tirumeni? If so, adiyen has rarely performed any acharya kainkaryam. Putting in additional thought as I asked myself an even more fundamental question - Who is a true acharya and what is his tirumeni?

Vedic scriptures lay out 14 qualities that an acharya must possess to be called a true guru. One of the key qualities is that a true acharya is always situated in Emperuman, Lord Sri Ranganatha. If so, then the acharya's tirumeni is really Emperuman. In other words, my acharya's tirumeni is none other than Lord Srimannarayana and taking care of the Lord means to take care the two worlds - Leela and Nithya vibuthis. Leela vibhuthi is the entire visible universe and nithya vibhuthi is the abode of Lord Srimannaryana.

Hence, adiyen concluded that taking care of my acharya's tirumeni is really taking of the Perumal.

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Jai Srimannarayana ! జై శ్రీ మన్నారాయణ ! This is a life-time opportunity to be part of something bigger than ourselves. 216ft of Sri Ramanuja Swamy is coming up shortly in the beautiful city of Hyderabad, India. Hyderabad and India will soon be identified with the monument and we can all proudly say that we were part of a generation that made the statue happen. Link to the progress that has been made till date : https://www.statueofequality.org/ Options to donate : https://donations.chinnajeeyar.guru/product-category/statue-of-equality/ You can always reach out to your local Jeeyar Education Trust chapter members (jetusa.org) to learn more about the project and be part of it.

What - Group chanting of Sri Vishnusahasranaama
When - Bheeshma Ekadashi day, Jan 27th 2018, Saturday
Where - 1776 Educational Park Dr, San Jose, CA 95133
Time - 10:30am to 12:00PM PST
Parasadam - Yes ! Ofcourse
Where to Register - jetcalifornia.org
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The Lord's names are not like the names of the people whose behavior is completely out of sync with the name. For instance, someone might be named Rama, however, there behavior could be like Ravana. Unlike the mere mortal people, the Lord's 1000 names describe the qualities of the Lord. Hence, by just chanting and thinking of the name, we can inculcate atleast few of those divine qualities. Moreover, chanting the name in the group multiplies the effect. For example if there are 2 people chanting then the effect is 10 times 10 = 100 times. If there are 2 people chanting then the effect is 10 times 10 times 10 = 1000 times.